History Main / TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse

Classic [[UrbanLegends urban legend]] horror scenario: Someone, usually a young woman who is home alone, often a baby sitter, gets a creepy phone call. The police trace it but learn that the calls are coming from inside the house.

This is a partly DiscreditedTrope, because the whole urban legend relies on a myth about old analog land lines: the idea that you could, by tapping the receiver button carefully, manage to dial the telephone number of the building/home you were occupying at the time. Before cell phones, it was generally not possible to call someone from the same house you were in (at least without additional land lines, which are uncommon in a single dwelling). [[hottip:*:In fact, tapping the switch-hook is electrically no different than what the dial does: It momentarily opens the circuit. Five momentary openings in quick succession registers at the exchange as the digit "5", and so on. The dial just does it more conveniently. And if you dial the number of the line you're on, whether with the dial or the switchhook, whether or not there are other extensions on the line, you get a busy signal; that line ''is'' off-hook, after all. Nor is it electrically possible for the exchange to ring the other extensions on a line when one of them is off-hook; the low impedance of an off-hook phone will essentially short out the ring voltage.]]

* Spoofed in [[http://xkcd.com/742/ this]] ''{{xkcd}}'' strip.

[[AC:Commercials]]
* Spoofed by the Budweiser ads with penguins calling some guy from upstairs and asking him how his Bud Ice is. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVWtq-_VYk8 Beware of the penguins.]]

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* Spoofed by Brak on ''Cartoon Planet''.

The sense of dread that a phone call is coming from the very building you are occupying may be lost on people who are used to being able to call anyone from anywhere at any time. However, learning that instead of being safe in your home, you're actually locked in the building with the psycho who's been making threatening calls, can still be pretty scary, cell phone or not. Which raises the question of ''why'' there need be any tension at all - [[FridgeLogic if you're in your own house, and you have the keys to it, you could simply run out, lock the door and wait for the cops to arrive]].

This is a partly DiscreditedTrope, because the whole urban legend relies on a myth about old analog land lines: the idea that you could, by tapping the receiver button carefully, manage to dial the telephone number of the building/home you were occupying at the time. Before cell phones, it was generally not possible to call someone from the same house you were in (at least without additional land lines, which are uncommon in a single dwelling).

(In fact, tapping the switch-hook is electrically no different than what the dial does: It momentarily opens the circuit. Five momentary openings in quick succession registers at the exchange as the digit "5", and so on. The dial just does it more conveniently. And if you dial the number of the line you're on, whether with the dial or the switchhook, whether or not there are other extensions on the line, you get a busy signal; that line ''is'' off-hook, after all. Nor is it electrically possible for the exchange to ring the other extensions on a line when one of them is off-hook; the low impedance of an off-hook phone will essentially short out the ring voltage.)

This is a partly DiscreditedTrope, because the whole urban legend relies on a myth about old analog land lines: the idea that you could, by tapping the receiver button carefully, manage to dial the telephone number of the building/home you were occupying at the time. Before cell phones, it was generally not possible to call someone from the same house you were in (without additional land lines, at least, which were uncommon until relatively recent years).

The sense of dread that a phone call is coming from the very building you are occupying may be lost on people who are used to being able to call anyone from anywhere at any time. However, learning that instead of being safe in your home, you're actually locked in the building with the psycho who's been making threatening calls, can still be pretty scary, cell phone or not. Which begs the question of ''why'' there need be any tension at all - [[FridgeLogic if you're in your own house, and you have the keys to it, you could simply run out, lock the door and wait for the cops to arrive]].

* ''BlackChristmas''

** [[{{Madagascar}} I was already aware that penguins were a terrifying species]], but now they're after beer?

* Spoofed by Brak on ''CartoonPlanet''.

* Used in the first ''{{Film/Urban Legend}}'' movie. A character gets a call in his house during a party, checks the ID and proclaims it's this trope. He starts up the stairs when the killer on the phone corrects him with: "No. This is the one about the old lady who put her dog in the microwave."

The sense of dread that a phone call is coming from the very building you are occupying may be lost on people who are used to being able to call anyone from anywhere at any time. However, learning that instead of being safe in your home, you're actually locked in the building with the psycho who's been making threatening calls, can still be pretty scary, cell phone or not.

* One of AlFranken's "Daily Affirmation With Stuart Smalley" segments on ''SaturdayNightLive'' tell a scary story in a HalloweenEpisode based on this. The mysterious caller was [[TheUnintelligible completely incomprehensible and mumbling]] and the big, scary reveal comes from the operator responding one of the calls to warn the girl "The caller is inside the house! It's your father, and he's been ''drinking!''"

* Subverted in ''LostHighway'' "I'm there right now. Call me."

* Used in the first ''Urban Legend'' movie. A character gets a call in his house during a party, checks the ID and proclaims it's this trope. He starts up the stairs when the killer on the phone corrects him with: "No. This is the one about the old lady who put her dog in the microwave."
* Spoofed in the first ''ScaryMovie''

* The plot of the movie ''{{When a Stranger Calls}}''.
* Aqua's song 'Halloween' OMG... @/Tropers.SabrinaDiamond

* Spoofed on ''[[{{ptitleolsdue4jfzga}} 30 Rock]]''.
* ''{{CSI}}'' did this once.
* ''CriminalMinds'': in the episode "Somebody's Watching." Justified because the caller was using a cell phone.

* Frequently spoofed on ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'', usually when a character in the movie being skewered is holding a phone and looking worried about what they are hearing. For example, in the movie ''TheGiantSpiderInvasion'', when a NASA scientist is answering a phone call about giant alien spiders invading northern Wisconsin:
--> '''Tom Servo:''' The calls are coming from inside NASA!

* ''TheSimpsons'': At the beginning of the first "[[HalloweenEpisode Treehouse of Horror]]" episode, Lisa is seen wrapping up the original story with Bart in the treehouse, but Bart is less than impressed.
* Spoofed on ''{{The State}}'', with the call [[spoiler:"coming from inside your pants. YOU'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF YOUR PANTS!!!"]].
* Parodied on ''HowIMetYourMother''. Ted, working out of his home, gets a call from his personal assistant saying he's sick and won't be coming in. Ted accepts it, but then notices on his cell phone's caller ID that the call came from INSIDE HIS HOME. [[spoiler:The assistant is in the next room sleeping with his roommate Robin.]]
* Spoofed by Brak on ''CartoonPlanet''.
* Played straight in the ''TwilightZone'' episode "The Living Doll", when a man receives a phone call from his daughter's evil doll, who threatens to kill him.
* Used in the first Urban Legend movie. A character gets a call in his house during a party, checks the ID and proclaims it's this trope. He starts up the stairs when the killer on the phone corrects him with: "No. This is the one about the old lady who put her dog in the microwave."
* Spoofed in [[http://xkcd.com/742/ this]] ''{{xkcd}}'' strip.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bewarepenguins.jpg
[[caption-width:316:[[CatchPhrase Doo-by dooby doo]]...]]

[[caption-width:316:Doo-by dooby doo...]]